The Original Mary

Here's a report that I got from a friend who went to the I-GlobalMedia booth at Global Gaming Expo. Individuals shopping for software lurk this forum, so I thought I'd add it for their reference.

I-Global Media

Mary's buddy observed that as he approached their booth, everyone in it had their show badges turned to conceal their names. When COO Mario Wells noticed that his had flipped over to reveal his identity, he turned it back to the blank side. Mary's buddy found Mario's frankness about barriers of entry to be surprising.

Mario claims they have been in the online casino business since 97, but to Mary's inquiry if that was under another name, denied it. (We knew that their casinos have a bad rep as Handa Lopez.)
65 sites
Total Turnkey package, including design. If an operator wants to handle some functions, this can be negotiated.
Software available in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and German.
Three formats of the software: download, java, html (probably the old crappy HL)
More than 65 games available in all three formats.
Pink pearl slot
The use Ez cash and offer Paypal
24 7 customer support phone email and chat (Mary notes that's somewhat meaningless, what is 24/7 in email?)
Development house is in India
Low labor cost because they are in India
60 people working in india
80 people in operations center in Dominican Republic
Webmaster affiliate program
Agents do stuff for operator
Provide accounting, hosting, etc.
Egame customer service management package for owner to track casino not in real time, but arrangements could be made for real time reporting at extra cost.
Refused to show Mary's buddy the software or back end "For security reasons" (Crypto got hacked)
Today only aggregate stats on players are reported, there is no collecting of individual player stats
Again, that could be added, if owner pays extra for development.
They watch for fraud and bonus abuse so the owner doesn't need to, such as suspicious credit card use.
Typically prevent bad accounts by giving players a low buyin limit and gradually raising it as the player develops a positive history with the casino.
If they do find a suspicious player, the owner makes decision how to handle it. This information is made available to all 65 sites and owners
No staff in USA because of legal issues
Owner responsible for marketing, though IGlobal is available to offer marketing advice
Profit varies from $50k to several millions a month
Usually spend 30--40 percent of revenue on ads per month
Single biggest factor is experience with internet marketing.
If you dont have experience think twice it is hard work and not easy money
Start with a large list of leads from another source
Not a one man job takes at least three people one for advertising and two
for search engine optimazation.
Risk is setup cost of about $60k lots of volume to bring costs down
Igm takes 25per cent of net
IGM is trying to grow fast
When they add new features everybody gets it
6 percent taken for credit card processing on gross deposits
Debit is coming
Operator ability to change the hold is not an important concern, as players rebet the casino will typically collect 45--50% (Not a clear answer on whether or not operators can change the hold.)
Bad months will extend credit to operator not unusual to lose money in initial months
operator cannot mess with payouts or rules (ok, here is where he addressed configurability)
Can manually change specific game results for promotional purposes, because the labor is cheaper than writing software management modules; i.e., if the casino owner wants to offer a promotion of two to one on Black Jack that would not be handled through software but through uman operators reviewing playlogs and adding funds.
If they got hacked they would have to eat it (i.e., Iglobal typically controls the servers and security, so they would have to suffer the results.)
Web servers in Canada co-hosted by Colosseum (a co-hosting service, not the casino) not on reservation
Actual wagering and the database is done in the Dominican Republic.